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Packing For Mars… part three.

49 Comments

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Are you ready to be blown away by the physiological changes of space travel?

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Free floating organs is a disturbing enough thought… but I haven’t had a uterus since my hysterectomy in 2015, so what’s my colon kicking back on now?

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No wrinkles, smaller waist and the ability to jettison my bra? Sign me up.

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Veins in the leg muscles normally constrict when we stand, to help keep blood from pooling in our feet. After weeks without gravity, this feature stops bothering to work. Compounding the problem is the fact that the body’s blood volume sensors are in the upper half of the body. Where, without gravity, more of the body’s blood tends to pool; the sensors mis-
interpret this as a surplus of blood, and word goes out to cut back on production. Astronauts in space make do with 10 to 15 percent less blood than they have on Earth. The combination of low blood
volume and lazy veins makes astronauts lightheaded when they return to gravity after a long stay in space. It’s called orthostatic hypotension, and it can be embarrassing. Astronauts have been known to faint during postmission press conferences.

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These are the types of things I never thought about in connection with astronauts. Clearly the human body is not meant to be without gravity.

Another thing I never thought about?

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But now I can’t think of anything else.

🤣

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49 thoughts on “Packing For Mars… part three.”

  1. I can think about this: It’s 5:48 AM and, according to WP, that means you posted this right around 5:00. Should I start calling you Rusty, because you never sleep? I’m up early by about an hour and I can’t figure out what I’m doing here.

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    1. I’m a chronic insomniac with a husband who has crazy sleep patterns. He falls asleep early when I’m awake then gets up at 3:00am. He’s not quiet so he wakes me up. I try to go back to sleep but can’t. So then I’m awake but he’s fallen back asleep on the couch with the tv on. That’s my time to sit quietly and blog.
      Good morning!
      ☕️

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      Reply

      1. Got it. I’m up late, like 2:00 or so, then wake up sometime in the sixes when Cathy does, and I try to grab a nap sometime around noon. We sleep in opposite ends of the house to accommodate for these little problems and it works well. I take CBD and melatonin and it helps a bit, but I’ve got to be worn flat out before I sleep more than four or five hours at a time. Thank GAWD for PG tips. I know this is a drag but you seem to bear up under it well. Time for cup of tea #3, have a good one.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I can’t help but add my sleep story here. From the age of about 20, I almost stopped sleeping. Four hours a night was my maximum, and I often went days with no sleep or very little. But as that became my norm, it stopped bothering me. I slept when I felt the need, and other times just lay in bed reading, or doing nothing, letting my body rest while my mind worked on overtime. My live-in partners never complained, they all slept eight or more hours at a time and had no idea — or at least no one ever said anything to me. Never having had children, I was never worn out by them I guess!
        Fast forward 40 or so years. My present partner noticed, and bitched at me about it. She needed 10 hours a night, but she was a light sleeper. My late night antics kept her awake. And then she told my doctor, which I had never done before. The doctor got most upset. He told me lack of sleep was the probable cause of most of my medical problems. I countered that I always gave my body rest, just not sleep. He yelled at me.
        So to please them I slowly taught myself to sleep at least 6 hours a night, every night, whether my mind needed it or not. Funny thing happened. My mind decided sleep was good, and suddenly I was sleeping 10 or even twelve hours a night. For awhile. Creeped me right out.
        But after a few years of that I am slowly returning to my old patterns. I’m down to about six hours per 24 hour period: four or five hours a night, and one or two hours during the day. My mind is getting too busy to sleep again, not like in my younger years, but certainly not like 2 years ago, even. Where I will end up I have no idea. If I live to be 90, will I be back to no sleep? I really have no idea. I just spend a lot of time laying in the dark, trying not to think. But letting my partner sleep. She is happier when she sleeps.

        Liked by 2 people

      3. For a long time it felt like I never slept. I’d have a time falling asleep and a worse time staying asleep. I saw a doctor and all they wanted to do was give me pills. Ironically, since my hysterectomy I sleep better and longer but still never a full 8 hours. I’m a very light sleeper and wake if a pin drops.

        Liked by 1 person

      6. Funny, because when I do sleep, the world can blow up around me and I hear nothing. Once when I was in my 20s I lived in a rooming house. Two guys got into it in the hallway, broke my door down and apparently threw each other around my room for 15 minutes before moving on. I slept through it all, and woke up wondering why my door was off its hinges and my room was a mess. When I heard the story I could not believe it. How the hell did I sleep through that? But I did…

        Liked by 2 people

      8. I do feel sorry for you, because while Gail doesn’t need earplugs she wakes up so easily, then has trouble getting back to sleep.
        But, a cat can walk all over her, and purr as loud ax it wants, and she sleeps through that. I guess she has her priorities. We have 5 cats, and 4 of them sleep with her.

        Liked by 1 person

      18. Otto’s been breaking my heart lately. He used to sleep with me every single night but now he sleeps with Cathy and the other two. He might hang out when I take a nap but that’s all. Super jelly.

        Liked by 1 person

      19. When we first adopted Dudley he was my boy all the way. Sat on my lap, followed me around the house, curled up with me when I read. Then he did a 180 and now he’s the husband’s cat. Sticks to him like glue and all I’m good for is opening cans. Fickle beasts!
        😉

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      21. It actually was, aside from having to sleep without a door from Friday night till Monday before they could get a new door. As for Stooge #5, I would have jumped at the chance. I don’t really find them funny anymore, but at that time I did.

        Liked by 1 person

      23. It was the slaps, and the sticks up the ass, that changed my mind about tnhat kind of comedy. It was funny until it wasn’t. Then it suckec big time for me!

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      24. Racing thoughts keep me awake in the dark, too. I am lucky to have a place where I can do just about anything, just about anytime. No electric guitar or any kind of hammering, but other than that it’s cool, and Cathy can sleep like the wind.

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  5. Maybs it’s because I am adequately endowed, though not even XL as far as I know, I have no idea, but I could never understand other men’s passion about the size of their penis. What we got is what we got. Most women do not complain, either way. So what’s the big dsal. (Did I say I have a low testosterone count, which my doctor tried to increase by giving me testosterone shots. But I made him stop. The shots changed me, made me more aggressive. I didn’t like being aggressive. I have been a pacifist all my life. I like being a pacifist. End of story.)

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      1. Exactly. 🤫 That old line, I’m a lover not a fighter has always had a home with me. Aside from beating beat up and bullied a big part of my early life, but never fighting back, I have participated in only 1 fistfight in my life, when I was about 5 years old. Never again.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I’m not a fighter either. I grew up in a house filled with love and parents who never raised their voice, let alone their hands to each other or me.
        ❣️

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      3. Again, the exact opposite of me. If I got a day without violence directed my way it was a lucky day indeed. But I watched and I learned. Violence solves nothing. It must makes victims out of people.
        While I wanted a home like yours, I had to cope with a monster. It taught me to not be a monster.

        Liked by 1 person

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